Hi, my name is Karen and I'm about to be a grandma for the 1st time. I don't want to be a fat grandma, I don't want to die young of heart disease attributed to my weight and I don't want to wear size 16's till the day I die either! I want to learn how to eat healthy and change my lifestyle so that when my grandson (Yep, a boy ) does arrive he can be privy to how to take care of himself as I pass on life's lessons to him.

Now, before I start I have to say that I joined Curves about a year ago and without dieting I lost 45#s in about 5 months....45 pounds and still over 200! ugh. Anyway, I got sick and had to quit working out and although I haven't gained any weight since my loss i haven't loss anymore no matter what I did so I decide to try LAWL as I watched a dear collegue start melting away. I know she's worked hard and she had more weight to lose than I do so I know my results won't be as dramatic as hers so early in the program...which is really funny because I just started the program last Thursday...not even a full week ago.

Frustration started on Sat..I did the Take Off on Friday/Sat and when I weighed in I had actually gained a pound...no big deal but it was ya know? The counselor asked me what I had eaten during Take Off and I told her...she had given me the Take Off instruction sheet on Thursday during intake and even suggested a menu I could follow....I followed it diligently...drank so much water I could have floated away if the current hit me just right...ate lots of veggies and protein...everything I ate was on the list and measured to a "t" yet I gained 1 #!

I decided one thing I needed to do was return to Curves because I've really slacked off and gotten quite flabby over the last several months. I weighed in at Curves (Monday) and I was up 4 pounds from the weight I came in at on Saturday...I know, different scales and all but a total of 5#s in as many days! Double UGH! So I weighed myself today at home...I weighed before my intake and my scale and their scale are pretty close in calibrations...definetly up..now it's 6#s!!!

I have my 1st personal success appt in the morning and the counselor called this evening to remind me of that and to see how things were going...I explained all of this and she said the deal with the Take off was because I was eating meat and meat is harder to digest and that I should have eaten just veggies --- OK! so WHY didn't you tell me that when you handed me the friggin instruction sheet w/menus??? Next she asked me if I've been eating the LA Lite bars...yes, I have but I shared my concern about the sugar content in those bars... her answer was that the sugar content has been figured into my daily calorie plan....my question was how do you know what my daily calorie plan is when you don't know what I'm going to eat day to day? she said that most people eat pretty much the same thing on this plan...I'm on the Blue plan....and so law of averages and my answers to their questions helped them in this configuration...my answers to their questions were Coke is my pitfall, I eat/crave food in the late afternoon, I can go all day without eating and not feel hungry, etc.....I'm worried I may have made a mistake with my decision to join LAWL.

Has anyone else out there started with these/similar frustrations? what did you do??

Thanks
Karen J

S/C

211/216! (UGH UGH UGH)

Karen- First off, with the amount of food and calories you have consumed, it is physically impossible to gain 6 lbs. What you are experiencing could be just water weight. Maybe you had a food reaction to something you ate, or even to the juice itself. Do you have any issues with soy? Did you possible consume too much water? On the fast forward, it is important to eat the meat on there, it just depends on the meat you eat. If you eat beef or pork, it will take longer to digest and you may see a slight gain for a day or two.

Unfortunately some of the people that are hired as counselors at LAWL know nothing about the program and yes they are trained as sales people first. Please do not get discouraged at the program because it DOES work!! You may need to find a counselor at your center that you click with and then just request to see that one counselor. It seems that the particular person you talked to may have been grasping for straws, LAWL does not think in calories and if you don't like or want to eat the bars, then tell them no, you don't have to use them to succeed on this program. They will put you on an all food program if you choose to not do them.

Everybody's body reacts differently. You may start off slow now and in a couple of weeks the pounds may just start melting off. Don't let this first week discourage you. Like I said before, the plan works, just look at everybodys tickers for the proof.

Good luck!!!

When I did TO for the first time my weight went up also, but later on toward the end of the week I had a big drop. My weight didn't change until I started eating on the plan. Hang in there this program really works. Sometimes the body just takes awhile to adjust.

Hi Deb & Tweet:

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm hoping that the weight gain is either a) water retention or b) reintroducing food and my body going "wholy toledo she's giving us food let's hold on to it!" and I hope that I'll start seeing a change soon. I talked to my friend who is literally melting away on this program (70# in 5 mo!- GO GET 'EM JANIE!) and she asked me "how's it going? isn't it amazing?" and I had to laugh and just said, "well it's going to take some getting used to!" she laughed, I laughed and I'm sitting thinking "failure!" I'm going to give it a couple of weeks so that my body can get used to being fed on a regular basis and hope to break this (new word of the day for me..) Keytosis where the body stores everything as fat because be it doesn't believe any more will come...I'm the worst with food, I'm the only fat person I know that isn't fat because she eats too much, I'm fat because I don't eat enough.

Good question Deb on the Soy...honestly, this the first time I've ever consciously eaten it so maybe there's an issue there but not sure..I am leaning to option B as the culprit until I can prove otherwise.

Anyway, I'll go in tomorrow and be the 1st "personal failure visit" of the decade and we'll just go from there...I'm just kidding, I don't feel like a failure yet, but I do feel pretty anxious about all of this right now.

I went to the grocery store tonight with my book in hand and it took me about 2 hours to buy $80 worth of groceries..my husband kept calling me to see if I was buying the store or what the deal was and then when I got home and only had 1/2 the bags I normally have he was like "what the ???" lol. I came in, convinced my daughter that low fat peanut butter is not an evil substance (and then took the jar I bought last time and showed her it was sugar free and reminded her shes been eating it for quite awhile and hasn't noticed the difference" and then took all the stuff I bought -- oh yea and I'm a huge fan of steak and I know that eating that, even though it's "allowed" is only going to impede my progress, so I bought several types of fish and even some soy burgers, and broke everything into allowable portions - thank goodness for snack size baggies, they're not only cute, they're full! haha. I'm going to make this work for me one way or the other and now I'm truely "armed" with the right foods and portions and such to see where this will lead me.

Anyway, I sure appreciate your kind words and encouragement and the fact you're here as walking inspirations.

Karen

Karen,
Thanks for making me chuckle at such an early hour in the morning. You have a great sense of humor. I especially liked the part about your daughter's shoes not minding the sugar free p.b. I can relate. My dog's back doesn't mind any foods either. How gross is that? My baby (2 yr old) tries to sneak his snacks under the table, to my dog and misses the mouth part. I am the only person I know that has to wash out chocolate shake or dried noodles from her dog's back. Oh well, those kids.......you gotta love them

As for your lack of instant success........that is tough for we instant gratification girls. I got lucky this time with my first week, but that has not always been the case. More than once, I have been on some sort of homemade diet when I have started something structured. Then, to my disappointment, when I would weigh in after a week, I had lost nothing, or a half a pound. It makes it seem so unfair and unattainable. Don't give up. You have to remind yourself that you had your power week whenever it was the last time you started dieting. And I am totally with you on the not eating enough problem. Yesteday was my day 7, and I just felt like that was all I was doing was eating. I had a hard time getting all of my servings in. I think I was still short one when I went to bed. Never thought I'd hear myself say that, but it is amazing when I look back to my old eating habits. There really were no habits..........I just ate when something looked and smelled really good. Otherwise, I would hold off, thinking, "why eat those extra calories.......wait for something really good.......like Taco Bell!!!"

Anyway....I have said a lot already........I just want you to know, that I too have been there.....starting out so excited, and not seeing a lot of (or any) progress. I always quit when that happened to me. Don't quit. Have a great POP day

Karen - You've received some excellent advice. Deb is a walking success story! I don't really have anything to add except "Welcome" and keep at it. The gain is not fat, it may be water, it may be your body holding on to some stuff temporarily, but this too shall pass.

Good luck, and let us know how your appointment goes today!

Welcome !

I am wondering why the blue plan? I am 200 lbs, started LAWL at 214 lbs. and am on the purple with lites....I have not been doing any exercise and definitly not more than 5 hrs worth.....you are over 200 lbs as well and on blue...double check with your COD on this

Karen - Welcome to the group. Sorry you are struggling this first week, I know it is frustrating. For me Take Off never results in a net weight loss, it just helps me get on track (I lose weight the day after TO, then gain it back the next WI usually). I can't imagine why you would gain so much on it - it must be water related.

Don't go crazy comparing the scales at different places. If you must weigh at Curves, then keep track of just the curves scale #'s. I weigh at home, and sometimes its the same as COD, sometimes less or more. I just have a piece of paper that I write the home scale #'s on for reference. I was down 2 lbs at home one day last week and thought I would finally break the 10lb mark. I went to the COD not more than 1 hour later and my weight had not changed from the last WI. I learned my lesson.

I have to agree with Deb that some of the counselors grasp at straws when they can't answer your questions. It really is too bad that this happens because my momma didn't raise and idiot, ya know?(I had one tell me not to have canned pineapple because it has too much sodium in it... it has none!) It really hurts the credibility of the program, but if you follow the food plan, it WILL WORK!

Hang with us - we're a fun group.

Karen- Way to go with the attitude and the planning, you are on the right road. Just make sure you get ALL of your food in and ALL of your water in. It will seem like a lot of food at first, but believe me if you miss some, it could show on the scale. After you get the jist of the program, you will learn to mix foods together to get a bunch of portions in one meal.

My DH complains when he opens the fridge that he can't find anything to eat because of all my fresh fruit and veggies clogging up the fridge. Goofy man!!

Karen - First of all - I wanted to remind you of a couple of things about LAWL.
1. You ARE going to learn to eat properly and it may take a little while to figure out what combination works for your body to lose weight.
2. Eating healthier will contribute to a healthier body and a healthier heart.
3. Learning how to eat healthy IS a lifestyle change and it IS for life and it IS one that you can pass on to that precious boy blessing coming into your life soon.

So with all that said... your goal is be healthier and live longer. Losing weight is a natural occurence that WILL happen. Hang in there! There is a post here from a few days ago where I listed the items that DH's counselor warned against eating (even though they ARE on the list) because they "hang on" longer...

Lastly, you'll find more support right here than you've ever had in any prior attempt at a diet or lifestyle change. The ladies here have the experience, attitude, compassion, and heart to help you any way they can - and best of all, they will! It amazes me the amount of time they take here to answer questions, exhort, and embrace one another.

Don't give up and don't give in!!! Take it one day at a time... one meal at a time... and sometimes, it's one calorie at a time...

Karen, this will work! You and I didn't gain this weight overnight and we won't lose it overnight. If that scale goes up, consider it the enemy challenging you to a duel - and it's one you HAVE TO WIN!!! You deserve to be healthier and that grandson deserves to have his grandma around for a long long time!!!

Blessings,

Thanks everyone for the encouragement.

Had my 1st PSV today...and guess what? I was actually down 1 1/2 pd from my weigh in on Sat..I've decided to ignore the scale here and the one at Curves (only have to do that for my monthly check in there and frankly I'm there to change fat to muscles and loose inches so no biggie on the scale thing)...I've decided I'm not in this for #'s....I want to feel better about myself, i want my clothes to fit me right, I want to be healthy and that's why I'm doing it and not necessarily in that order.

They switched me to the Red plan today and I told them that I didn't want to use the LA Lites so that adds a protein and a veggie to the day's plan. I feel better about that because while I understand the soy from the LA Lites plays a key role I don't want the sugar cause I tend to hug it a bit too closely around the middle if you know what I mean.

I feel better, met with a different counselor today than my past 2 visits and I really liked him so I will request him from here on out. He didn't try the big push on the LA Lites or their supplements and that made me feel better...Deb, thanks for repeatedly saying in your posts that we don't HAVE to do the lites. The only thing he said is if I don't then I jeopardize my refund I told him big deal, it's only money and I'm not gonna pay to gain and in a year it won't be that big of an amount as it was when I forked it over last week.

I also shared my concerns about the comment of the caller last night regarding the sugar being included in my daily calorie count and he said it was hogwash, she's new and is still in the "Sell Sell Sell" mode and that he would talk to her. He said that they have some really good "senior" staff members who have learned a lot about nutrition and then they have some new ones who pretend to know and he gave the names of the "srs" to call when I have questions and to ask for when I go in. He said the key here is to listen to your body....he said I'm probably right about the increased sugar concern and to just listen to my body, he said the program works as written but that nobody lives in my skin but me and to do what I feel I need to (within reason) of course to make it work for me...oh yea, and they have a new member book? he said "look in your Live book and you'll see.." and I said, "Live book?" and we realized I didn't get one...the whole program is making more sense now that i've been able to read some on it. Honestly I've been sitting her the last few days thinking, "they saw you coming, that "Sucker" sign is flashing bright red!" lol.

So, ladies, have any of you bought the cookbook? I was afraid to ask the price and wanted to get some input on it if I could before I moved forward w/getting it..

Thanks again you awesome loosers!

Karen

Karen - WTG on the loss. So glad to hear you had a good appointment! I love the cookbook and use it every week at least once, sometimes more. Same with our recipe threads. It is pricey, but I think it's worth it if you like to cook.

Karen, that is awesome about the loss and the great appointment. At my center, all but one of the counselors is or has been on LAWL, that helps tremendously as far as support and advice goes. I have the cookbook and actually look at it more than I use it, but have been using it more lately. It is kind of pricey, but I think it was worth it.

I am nervous now that I am on the wrong plan. I started at 222....am now 216.....and I am on the Gold plan with lites. Am I on the wrong plan????

Oh Heavens to Betsy! I can't help but think you are on the wrong plan! Most folks don't move to gold until the mid-180s.